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Monday, 17 November 2014

Scottish connections...

Old tram stop in the town.

Yesterday's church at St. Avertin turned up yet another Scottish connection herE in the Loire Valley. *Saint Avertin was actually a Scot...he had been a disciple of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and had come with him to attend a religious council at nearby Tours in 1162. After the assassination of the Archbishop he returned to Touraine to live the life of a hermit in the woods surrounding the village which was called 'Vensay' at the time. The locals took to the religious man and it was said that his prayers could cure migraines and headaches. Eventually the people asked him to be their first Parish priest and in 1371 they honoured his memory by naming the town after him, He was either from Aberdeen or called Aberdeen and the name derived from that...probably didn't understand the accent!!

Another Scot, John Coningham, captain of the Scottish guard
of Louis XI, also left his mark on the history of Saint-Avertin. He
acquired the castle
of Cange , which sits behind the town, in the fifteenth
century and gradually transformed the old medieval fortress into a comfortable residence.